Top-Earning American Idols 2012

American Idol first aired on June 11, 2002—when Scotty McCreery was eight years old. Now 19, he’s nearly two years removed from winning the show, and he’s already living up to its lofty title.

After receiving a $250,000 record deal as part of his Idol victory package, McCreery smashed expectations with his debut album, Clear As Day, which sold over 1 million copies. The teenager quickly took advantage by hitting the road last year, opening for Brad Paisley. Next up: a solo tour and a new album later this year, all while continuing his college education. And he’ll be able to afford it, with an estimated $4 million in earnings last year, thanks largely to Idol.

“It’s meant everything,” says McCreery of the show. “I didn’t have a career before, so it was the starting point for my career and it got me going. … They reach like 16 million fans on a bad night.”

Indeed they do. Though the show’s 2013 premiere earlier this month drew 17.9 million viewers, a 19% dip from last year, contestants from previous seasons continue to pull in heady annual earnings. Only a few bank as much as some of the show’s judges, who will take home a combined $54 million—nearly twice the total earnings of the top ten alums. A notable exception: the one who started it all.

Kelly Clarkson leads this year’s list with earnings of $8 million, about what Nicki Minaj makes for her role on Idol and twice what Keith Urban gets. More than a decade after winning Season One, Clarkson continues to grow her career, and her bank account, with the help of gold-certified album Stronger, a mentor role on The Voice, a Toyota commercial and a lucrative tour. She also sang—live—at President Obama’s inauguration.

Carrie Underwood and Chris Daughtry tie for the second spot. Underwood’s earnings were boosted by new album Blown Away, which has sold 1.2 million copies (just shy of the total for Justin Bieber’s Believe). Underwood didn’t tour much during our scoring period, but with an average nightly gross in excess of $400,000, she’s set for a big year with a string of concert dates running through at least early summer. Daughtry’s eponymous rock group continues to tour heavily, pulling in six-figure nightly grosses along the way.

Our numbers are based on estimated income from May 2011 to May 2012, before subtracting taxes, American Idol’s cut and any additional fees for agents, lawyers and managers. The totals were compiled with the help of data from Pollstar, RIAA and others, as well as interviews with industry insiders including managers, publicists, agents and some of the musicians themselves.

For a handful of artists, a higher position on next year’s list is all but guaranteed. Adam Lambert toured his way to $6 million in earnings in 2011 and this year falls to No. 7 with $1.5 million after taking time off to record Trespassing. The new album was released after the end of our scoring period, but debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts with 78,000 copies sold its first week.

Keep an eye on last year’s winner, Phillip Phillips, whose commercial success came too recently to land him on this year’s list but could well push him toward the top next time. His coronation song, “Home,” clocked 279,000 downloads in its opening week, and he’s set to hit the road with Matchbox 20.

Another one to watch: Jordin Sparks, who ranks No. 6 with earnings of $2 million. She opened for New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys in 2011 and appeared in Sparkle alongside Whitney Houston in 2012. In the coming year, look for her to get a boost from new movie projects and a Reebok endorsement deal—all successes than can be traced to the show that launched her.

Now six years removed from her Idol victory, Sparks doesn’t have to worry about handing a chunk of her earnings back to the show that launched her. More recent winners must turn over somewhere in the neighborhood of half of their income to Idol—before paying any remaining agents, managers and attorneys, not to mention Uncle Sam.

For McCreery, that probably means pocketing only about one-fifth of his $4 million payday. He’s fine with that.

“It’s depressing when you look at it, but I’m still making a good amount,” says McCreery. “I’m not in any way complaining…I’m doing a lot better than I was a few summers ago, living off the coin jar in my truck.”

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I’m so happy David Archuleta made the list again (he’s been on the list every year since he was on Idol). David only had 3 months available for work in 2012 before starting his 2-year S. American church mission on March 28, 2012. In the 10 weeks before his mission David was leading man and soundtrack singer of the 5-week Philippines miniseries Nandito Ako, did a Bench sponsorship, recorded a Philippines OPM album Forevermore and videos, did numerous live and TV promo appearances, performed an acoustic show for Fox in Singapore, and recorded a mostly-covers album called BEGIN in the US (he worked on that one through the night before his mission). He worked so hard to leave stuff for his fans while he’s away. David should be back near the start of April 2014. If you’re on twitter he’s DavidArchie and his manager (KS) is doing the tweets while David is away and sometimes includes a message from David.

How do you reconcile making this list with the fact that you don’t have access to their real finances? If they don’t report to Pollstar or have their managers contact you, does that seem fair to insinuate by omission that they didn’t earn their millions?

A fair question — in addition to checking Pollstar and Nielsen numbers, and reaching out to managers/agents/publicists, we talk to industry insiders to fill in the blanks as best we can. At the end of the day, we don’t have a copy of their tax returns, but Forbes prides itself in getting as close to that as possible.

Every year Forbes is way out in left field on some of them and leaves off others who should be in the top 10. You might as well call Miss Cleo since she’s no more connected than you are.

Are you aware that the majority of theaters and other concert venues never report ticket sales? You are missing entire tours. Neilson Soundscan doesn’t give you any insight as to earnings either since record contracts differ greatly and advances aren’t factored in.

What about private concerts and corporate shows? How do you know unless they voluntarily offer the information?

I can assure you that we’re more connected than Miss Cleo! And of course we’re aware that some venues don’t report ticket sales, which is why we talk to managers/agents/lawyers, etc. You’d be surprised what people will tell you on background…

I’d be interested to know which Idols and their people kept their details to themselves in a none of your business kinda way. I bet lots of them earned a lot of money and you just don’t know about it. The list is misleading that way. It implies that all others are not earning well when they very well might be. Take Taylor Hicks, who is on his 2nd year of residency in Las Vegas. I bet he’s pulling in good money. Clay Aiken toured twice last year and released an album and did a lot of TV. He should be on this top 10 list too.